Introducing the 2024 STATUS List, the Definitive Accounting of Leaders in the Life Sciences
MSM's Dr. Barney Graham is among the 50 standout individuals in health, medicine, and the life sciences whose work has advanced those fields.
By STAT News Staff
The 2024 STATUS List features 50 influential people shaping the future of health and life sciences across biotech, medicine, health care, policy, and health tech. The list is wide-ranging: from executives and VCs who set their industries’ priorities, to scientists expanding the scope of CRISPR technology, to researchers determined to eliminate racial bias from clinical algorithms.
Some are big names you’ve surely heard of; others behind-the-scenes players, trying to shake up the status quo. We didn’t shy away from leaders who are controversial. What these 50 people have in common is their impact over the past year, and why they’re worth our readers’ attention in the year ahead.
This list is necessarily subjective. It’s the product of a months-long (and sometimes painstaking) nomination and judging process involving editors and reporters at STAT. We welcome readers’ thoughts on who they would select and why. We hope the list will spark fresh conversations about the changemakers who are driving headlines in health and medicine.
Dr. Barney S. Graham
Professor of Medicine and Microbiology, Biochemistry, and Immunology; Director of the David Satcher Global Health Equity Institute, Morehouse School of Medicine
One of the biggest public health stories of 2023 was the approval and subsequent rollout of the world’s first RSV vaccines for seniors and infants, an achievement that scientists had been working toward for decades. Immunologist and virologist Barney Graham was among the researchers whose work led to the development of the RSV vaccines by identifying and targeting the F protein found on the surface of the virus. It’s been an impactful few years for Graham, who was also instrumental in developing the spike protein target used in a number of Covid vaccines.